Activist Prevented From Leaving Azerbaijan

5 April 2005 -- An Azeri rights activist says that authorities prevented him from leaving Azerbaijan to deliver a report on religious prosecution to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Agence France Presse today quotes Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, a banned Muslim cleric who heads Azerbaijan's branch of the International Religious Liberty Association, as saying he was blocked from leaving the country yesterday.

Ibrahimoglu says he was on his way to Geneva to deliver his report to the UN rights body today.

It is not the first time that Ibrahimoglu has been prevented from leaving Azerbaijan.

Ibrahimoglu was last year handed a five-year suspended sentence for participating in protests that turned into riots after a disputed presidential election in 2003.